


Clear Signals

by DarknessAroundUs



Series: Supernatural AU [6]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, High School, Past Alice Cooper/FP Jones II, References to Canon, Smut, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones, Superheroes, Telepathy, like a very very very small amount
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:02:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessAroundUs/pseuds/DarknessAroundUs
Summary: When Jughead was younger, ten or so, he used to keep a list of things he’d survived. His dad found it once and laughed. “Doesn’t this get old?” FP had asked. Jughead abandoned the list after that.After all, almost dying but not actually, was part of the job description.A superhero AU.





	1. Day One

For it is important that awake people be awake,  
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;  
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —  
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

\- William Stafford, A Ritual to Read to Each Other 

Jughead doesn’t see the point of school in general, but he really doesn’t see the point of mandatory meeting with his guidance counselor about his wildly hypothetical future career. 

It all feels like the set up to some deeply un-funny joke. But still he’s here, waiting on a long backless bench next to the guidance counselor's office. 

The guidance counselor, one Ms. Mack, opens the door, looks at Jughead, shakes her head and waves him in.

She makes a big production of looking up his academic records even though he’s seen her many times before, and they both know that his record is abysmal, but the kind of abysmal that means passing high school by the skin of one's teeth (which is how Jughead does most things in life, anyways). 

Last year Jughead made a deal with FP that if he passed on the first try - no summer school, no re-taking twelfth grade they would never talk about school of any sort again. 

“How are your classes going?” Ms. Mack asks. 

Jughead shrugs. It’s not like he’s dumb, both he and Ms. Mack know that. But he skips as many classes as he can, and he struggles to find time to do homework. Outside of school his schedule is beyond busy.

When he skips it isn’t because he’s lazy, it’s because he is doing something more important. Ms. Mack lives on the Southside, so it’s not like she’s entirely clueless as to what he’s doing when he’s skipping school. 

“Are you applying to college?” 

Jughead just laughs. Ms. Mack straightens the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and shakes her head. “Riverdale Community College would take you with these grades. I know they’re not the most glamorous, but it would be a place to start.”

“No, thanks.” Jughead says. It’s hard enough being a hero, school has always felt like this extra burden he could do without, and now that he was finally reaching the end of mandatory schooling, the idea that he would choose to opt into even more schooling seems absurd. 

“What will you do when you graduate? Are there any careers that particularly appeal to you?”

Jughead doesn’t know what to say. He started working officially when he was ten but he’s been training since he was four. Even before that Jughead knew what he was born to do. He’s the third of his name, the third child born with the sole purpose of protecting the Southside.

Ok, maybe not the sole purpose but it’s pretty close. Jughead knows that’s why his father hooked up with his mother in the first place. His mother Gladys was a hero who had returned to the city of her birth, to serve and protect it. 

Of course Ms. Mack doesn’t know any of that. The Jones’s don’t dress up in spandex. They don’t have vaguely patriotic logos. If anything they model the uniform they wear on what comic book villains wear, but more worn, less professional looking. It’s not like they have a costume department or a reasonable budget. 

What Ms. Mack knows is that Jughead’s father, the Serpent King, rules the Southside with violence, and that Jughead is by his side as part of a gang. She doesn’t realize that the violence is aimed at perpetrators of crimes and she has no clue about his powers. If she does, Jughead is doing a really piss poor job of hiding them. 

Not that being able to survive the beating of a lifetime is the best power to have. Sure, Jughead is stronger than most. He’s trained so he knows how to fight. 

But what truly sets him apart is his ability to survive pretty much anything. Runaway garbage truck - been there, done that. Bullets areboring, time consuming to remove though. Fire always left a funny smell in its wake, but not much more than that. 

When Jughead was younger, ten or so, he used to keep a list of things he’d survived. His dad had found it once and laughed. “Doesn’t this get old?” FP had asked. Jughead abandoned the list after that. 

After all, almost dying but not actually, was part of the job description. 

This has always been Jughead’s destiny. There was no changing it, even if he wanted to. It’s not like he could even imagine what his life would be like without this sense of purpose bigger than himself. His life was to keep crime in check, and if he could, take the Blossoms down, and lately they had actually made headway on that. 

“I am going to keep doing what i’m doing till I die.” Jughead says matter of factly. He thought of his grandfather, a man he had never met who was killed by a drug runner who also happened to be a giant gorilla. Employed by the Blossoms, no doubt. 

Ms. Mack presses her lips together and shakes her head. “I know that’s what it feels like now. That’s how gangs control you. But you can get out of Riverdale. You can do something else with your life.”

Jughead and FP had been called by Gladys to help help protect Toledo last year from some new mobsters in town. They were gone for less than a week, but returned to a town wide quarantine. If Jughead had any illusions that Riverdale could survive without him, that trip shattered them. 

The Blossoms are so powerful. Their ability to manipulate peoples minds if left unchecked would lead to the destruction of all of Riverdale. 

Because Mayor McCoy was finally properly funding the Serpents, they were able to have actually made progress fighting crime, in the last six months or so. The heirs to the Blossom fortune had left under mysterious circumstances, and the parents were lying low. The Southside had never been so safe. 

If Jughead was able to maintain the status quo on the Southside, life was going to improve for everyone who lived there. 

“I don’t think so.”

“You can’t be in a gang forever.” Ms. Mack says. 

“I won’t be in it forever. At some point I will lead it.” Jughead says with a shrug.

Ms. Mack can’t entirely hide the appalled look on her face. “You can go now.” She says with a sigh. 

Jughead gets up. He feels a little bad for Ms. Mack now. She doesn't see the world the way he does. She’s trying to help him out. 

“Stay safe out there.” She says. There is genuine warmth in her eyes. 

Ms. Mack has no idea Jughead can jump off a four story building and survive. She has no idea that Jughead can lift a thousand pounds and barely break a sweat. 

“I’ll try.” He says. He steps out the door and slams into Betty Cooper. She falls, he doesn’t.

He mutters an apology as he helps her up. For some reason in spite of the fall Betty Cooper has a twinkle in her eye.

Betty is the type of student who has already applied to a whole ream of top tier colleges. There is no real reason for her to see Ms. Mack, because she will get in, probably somewhere like Columbia. 

“I’m going to stay in Riverdale actually.” Betty says, and Jughead is stunned. Did he accidently say that outloud. “You did not.” Betty whispers softly. “Meet me at noon at the bleachers.” Then she marches past him to Ms. Mack, a giant smile on her face.

The door slams shut behind her. He has no clue what happened, but he feels profoundly confused. Could Betty Cooper really read minds? He didn’t know her well. They’d gone to school together most of their lives, but as soon as there were advanced placement classes to take, Betty was in them and he was not.

She was always nice to him in the halls, unlike some other students, but she seemed separate, as if she was above the rest of them somehow. If she could actually read people’s minds, perhaps she was. The idea horrifies him. He knows for a fact that he’s had thoughts around her that he wouldn’t want her to hear. 

He’s always been attracted to her. As long as he can remember at least. It went beyond her physical appearance, gorgeous though she was, there was something about her that intrigued him. He forces himself to stop thinking about it though. No good will come from that, particularly if she can hear him thinking thosethoughts. Instead he forces himself to think about math, something he generally avoids at all costs. 

Still, he tells Sweet Pea and Fangs he can’t sit with them today, and he takes his lunch out to the football field. When he makes it to the bleachers, Betty isn’t there. Instead her boyfriend is, leaning against a pole and texting on his phone. 

It’s not like Jughead hates Archie Andrews, he barely knows the guy, but if the opposite of Jughead, all moods, dirt, and rudeness, existed it was Archie Andrews. Archie was kind and generous. Outgoing and clean cut. In other words, a compatible match for Betty Cooper. 

Jughead is about to back away when Archie glances up “Hey man. Betty will be here any minute.”

“Why are you here?” Jughead asks, trying to keep the snarl out of his voice.

“Betty asked me to come.” Archie says with a shrug. “Plus we have a lot in common.”

Jughead scoffs. Archie raises one eyebrow, darts forward unexpectedly and pulls a knife from Jughead’s pocket, his movements are so swift, Jughead has a hard time following them. Archie extends one palm, and then with the knife he cuts into it, across it. 

For a second a red gleam of blood appears, and then it vanishes, sealed in by skin before it can even leak a drop onto his perfect khakis.

“Fuck.” Jughead says. “We’re the same.”

“More or less. Betty says you’re stronger, that you heal better.” Archie says with a shrug. “Only my mom had powers.”

Jughead nods. He feels dumbstruck. Incapable of saying anything. It’s ok though because Archie fills in the silence, “I’ve been helping Betty out for a few years now. She gives me a lot of grief for not taking it as seriously as I should. She’s always bugging me about paying too much attention to music, to football, to anything else really. She’s such a nag.”

Jughead almost laughs. He thinks about how he doesn’t even have enough time to really do school properly and Archie is complaining about not being able to do all the extracurriculars he wants. 

But it reminds him again that he should ask about Betty. “So Betty’s powers have to do with listening?” Jughead asks. He thinks he knows what they are but it is better to clarify, and easier to ask Archie than Betty herself. 

“Oh yeah. Anything we think she can hear.” 

Jughead shakes his head. That’s what he thought, and he hates the idea. He feels so exposed. His dad never warned him that anyone can do that. Although Jughead couldn’t imagine why, there is no way FP doesn’t know about this.

“I know it’s weird.” Archie says. “When she first told me I freaked out and yelled at her. It felt like she was spying on me or something. But that’s not it. It’s not like she can turn it off. She’s had it her whole life. For her it’s just like another sense.”

“A sixth sense.” Jughead says with a wink.

“Exactly. She knows a lot, but she doesn’t have the strength to intervene herself. That’s where I come in.”

Suddenly Jughead wonders if Betty has known about him for years. She must have, because he’s always thinking about the Serpents, about crimes and their consequences. Why hadn’t she approached him sooner?

“Because my mom made me promise that I wouldn’t.” Betty answers his unvocalized question. He almost jumps with shock. She’s standing behind him. Her hair in a ponytail. She has a conservative sweater on. Betty looks like a Stepford wife in waiting. Beautiful but not real. He has got to stop having thoughts like these around her.

He wonders briefly if there is some way he can avoid ever seeing her again. She doesn’t respond verbally this time. She just raises one eyebrow and shakes her head slightly. 

“Sorry I was late.” Bettys says. 

“It’s ok. Why are you coming to me now? Did your mom change her mind?” Jughead wonders if her mother’s the person she inherited her powers from. Probably. Alice Cooper has the reputation of being the best gossip in town, and having telepathic abilities would certainly help with that. 

“Alice doesn’t change her mind. She has a history with your dad. I think. I inherited her ability. But she knows how to shield her mind when she really wants to. I can’t get a completely accurate read on the situation. Thankfully I know that trick as well now.”

Jughead nods.

“I came to you now, because I need help. Things are good right now. On both our sides.”

Jughead is struck by that statement, and suddenly it’s like a piece of the puzzle slips into place - of fucking course. His dad has always insisted they stick to the Southside, that their duty was only to the Southside. That must be because he knows about Betty and Alice, Archie even. He knows the Northside already has protectors.

Jughead had always assumed that the Northside stayed safe from a combination of wealth and actual policing, now he realizes that probably wasn’t the case.

“It was not.’ Betty confirms.

“Fuck. I kind of hate that you know what I’m thinking.” He says.

Archie shrugs. “You will get used to it.” 

“The fact is we have a chance to do something important. This is the calm before the storm. A new family is moving in. They want to take over from the Blossoms.”

“What? I haven't heard anything.” Jughead says. The Serpents have their sources, usually if anything is happening that will affect the Southside they know well in advance. 

“I only know by accident. I was passing the Pembrooke the other day and I heard movers thinking about the Lodges.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

“You know them?” Betty asks.

“Yes. My mom’s based out of Toledo, she called us in last year to help her out there with them. They made a big fucking mess. They came in and within the month crime rates were through the roof. They aggressively make and deal drugs.”

Betty’s clearly upset by this update, and for a second Jughead very much wishes he could read her mind. He hates that it’s a one way street. 

“That doesn’t sound good.” Betty says. “The only way to combat this is to be organized, to coordinate, to work together.”

Jughead doesn’t love the idea. He’s a private person, or rather he thought of himself as one, till he learned of Betty’s powers. 

But it’s not like he has a choice. This is the only way forward. He nods and they exchange numbers, before Archie runs off to practice. Jughead isn’t sure what.

“It’s football this time.” Betty clarifies. 

“I don’t think I will ever get used to that.” Jughead says, trying to think only safe thoughts. 

“He’s not my boyfriend, by the way.”

Oh. Jughead is surprised by that one. They’re always such a pair. Walking the halls together, sitting together at lunch.

“We work together. That’s all. If you could read his mind and see how he thinks about girls you would not be so surprised.”

“Ok.” Jughead can’t help but smile at that crack. 

“I’ve got to go.” Betty says. The bell hasn’t rung but it’s about to so Jughead just nods and walks with her back towards school. Once they enter the school and before they split up to go in opposite directions, Betty turns towards him and says. “Full disclosure. I like you too.” 

Then as he’s reeling from that bombshell she leans in and kisses him. 

Jughead has fantasized about this moment more than he’d ever admit, but it feels entirely different than he imagined. Her lips are soft and a little cold from being outside, but they press into his with such promise, that he can’t help but press back. 

She times everything exactly right. Pulling away just as the bell rings, and the empty halls of the school are suddenly filled with students rushing past them, as if nothing has changed. No one gives them a second glance, as Betty leans over and whispers in his ear “I know what your thinking and I like it.” With that last sentence Jughead struggles to form a coherent thought, and by the time he has, Betty is gone.


	2. Day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off a huge thanks is owed to my new beta (and wonderful friend) KittiLee for beta-ing this! I am very grateful.
> 
> Secondly, sorry for the delay. It's been a month. The next update should be sooner.

She meets Jughead at the bleachers after school. His hands are shoved into his pockets, his gaze is focused on the ground. His thoughts are unfocused. She can’t pick up on just one, instead she gets flashes - The shower this morning, Sweet Pea swearing at a car, coffee, the kiss they shared yesterday, cold pizza. 

Jughead looks up and when he sees her, she feels all his thoughts focus on her, like a murmuration of starlings, gathering suddenly into a dense clump after being scattered.

He’s focused on her. She can see how much he longs for her, how much he likes her, but also how terrified he is by the fact that she can read his mind. He doesn’t really know her. Not the way she knows him.

For years she’s been reading his mind without him knowing. She has grown to love the way he thinks. 

Everyone thinks differently. Archie’s thoughts are always dominated by whatever he desires that day, mostly girls, although sometimes accolades. 

Fred’s thoughts are about taking care of Archie, about building things, caring for people. Even now when Betty’s most upset, she tries to be near Fred because his thoughts can calm her down. They are so grounded in love. 

Her father’s thoughts are boring. They are always about prosaic things, like cars and bills and how he can get out of going to church on Sunday, without looking like he’s trying to get out of going to church on Sunday.

Jughead’s thoughts are surprisingly soothing for someone so often caught up in violence. When she hears Jughead’s thoughts it is often like he is composing a book in his head, writing it there because he doesn’t have time to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. He takes what he sees, the mundane and the violent, and turns it into something more than it is.

Betty knows he hates that she can read his thoughts, that is what he is focused on right now, and she gets it. But she hopes she can make it clear to him how much she admires the way he thinks. How that is part of what draws her to him.

That the thoughts he seems to be most embarrassed about, the ones about her physicality, are actually less intrusive than the ones that most teenagers at her school have. Since she has to hear everyone’s thoughts, all the time, she’s pretty immune to things that would freak most people out. 

“I’m sorry it bothers you so much that I can read your thoughts.” Betty says. He smiles tentatively. 

“It just feels so uneven. You know all of my thoughts, all of my secrets, and you have for years, yet I know none of yours.”

Betty gets this. Out of all the people she knows only Archie and her mom knows that she can read minds. And her mother can block her from readings hers, and Archie no longer cares, but at first whenever he was around her he would only try to think about sports. It was pretty funny actually. 

“How about this, you can ask me any question you want at any time and I’ll always answer it truthfully to the best of my abilities.” 

Betty knows he’s still nervous around her, but that mixes with his desire to kiss her, in a strange way. 

“Why did you kiss me?” He asks. 

“Because I knew you wanted to kiss me, and I wanted to kiss you. It seemed like the right move. I also thought it would make you more confident in terms of where you stood with me. You seemed so nervous that I would find out that you liked me, when in reality I’ve known for years, and liked you in return. There was no good reason to prolong that angst.”

Betty can tell right away that what she’s saying helps him. It comforts him. It places them more firmly on the same page. 

“Why did you tell me to meet you here now?” he asks.

“Because after lunch Veronica Lodge arrives at school, and I have been tasked with her orientation tour. I thought you would want to know that.”

“So the Lodges have moved to Riverdale.” Jughead says, letting out a low whistle. What he’s thinking is oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. 

Betty understands why. Last night on the phone (which she can’t read his mind over), he told her all about how they managed to kick the Lodges out of Toledo through pure brute force. But that wasn’t exactly good news because he thought they were planning to leave anyways. Based on what other heroes had told his mom, the Lodges generally only stayed in town for a couple of months till the market was saturated, the cops were furious, and the town was on the brink of self-destructing. Then they left. 

Betty couldn’t let it go on for that long in Riverdale. She needed them to leave as quickly as possible.

“Yes. But the good thing is I should be able to get a read on Veronica.” 

Betty thought Veronica might be the weak link. Even if she was involved in the business it was probably not in the same way that her parents were. Besides if Betty could read her mind she could cut her off at the pass. The goal today was to test the waters, and ideally befriend her.

“Can you get a read on the Blossoms?” Jughead asks. 

Betty shakes her head. She wishes she could, but that’s not how their powers work. The Blossoms are masters at manipulating emotion. You feel what they want you to feel. It is hard to try and focus on what they are thinking while they are projecting lust, or envy, or hatred on to you. 

Sometimes she’d get a flicker, a half formed sentence from Cheryl or Jason before they left, but the few times she saw their parents she got nothing. That is not how it worked. 

She doesn’t know what the Lodges powers are, but she assumes they are different than the Blossoms. Crime families with the same powers didn’t tend to move into each other's territories. The competition was too tricky that way. 

“I can read most people with powers, unless they can manipulate emotions, like the Blossoms do.”

Jughead nods. “Do you ever not want to read people’s minds?”

“All the time.” Betty laughs. ”It’s why I spend so much time at home, alone. If I’m around people all the time, it’s too noisy, even if no ones talking, and it’s too stressful. I feel like most people in this town spend most of their time worrying about something or being infatuated with someone.”

Jughead smiles and shakes his head. “I think that’s true of a lot more places than this town.”

Betty nods. “I know. I don’t think I could live in an apartment building ever because I can hear people thinking even if they’re in the room next to me. It’s just too stressful.”

“I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine. I mean I’ve never lived any other way. My powers are like your powers, I’ve had them all my life. I don’t know what it would be like to live without them.” 

Jughead nods and in his head he’s thinking about what it was like growing up. Betty can almost feel what it was like when he was first learning how to take a hit at four and how to punch at six. He’s been training and fighting his whole life. It is part of him the way knowing the thoughts of strangers are a part of her. 

“Do you want to meet Veronica with me?” Betty asks. 

Jughead’s first thought is no, but by the time his thought has formed fully enough to come out of his mouth he says “Yes.”

Betty leads the way. As they walk she says “Can I patrol with you tonight?”

His thoughts leap to exhaustion and then to kisses, and then to the image of a knife in her back. His wants and his worries, she realizes.

“Sure.” He says as they round the corner. Veronica’s standing in front of the principal's office. Instead of a backpack she has a thoroughly expensive looking bag. Her whole image is polished and designed. Her hair is perfectly in place. 

It’s a relief that Betty can hear what Veronica is thinking from here. It was the standard first day of school thought - nervousness and boredom. 

“Hello, you must be Veronica Lodge.” Betty says, and Veronica turns towards her, and Betty can feel the other girls attraction towards her. The way she catalogs Betty’s body is both blunt, flattering, and uncomfortable for Betty. She doesn’t even notice Jughead. 

“I am, and you must be Betty Cooper.”

Betty nods, and then nods and Jughead “And this is my friend, Jughead Jones.”

Veronica says “What sort of name is Jughead?” and Jughead thinks how many times am I doomed to hear that line, but he doesn’t answer her. 

“What do you want to see first?” Betty asks. 

Veronica thinks the popular table in the cafeteria, but says “Oh, just your standard tour will do.”

So Betty shows her the standard tour, student lounge, music rooms, cafeteria, nothing too exciting. Jughead says nothing but what he thinks about ranges from kisses to milkshakes to the time a car ran him over. Veronica’s thoughts are mostly of the bored variety and the occasional flare of attraction. 

“Where did you move here from?” Betty asks at the end of the tour. 

Veronica perks up immediately. “Kansas City, which was ok. Before that we lived in Toledo, which was awful. Before that there was a series of other towns that sucked, but four years ago we lived in Manhattan, and it was the best.” 

“Wow, why did you move so much?” Betty asks. Jughead mutters something under his breath. He’s thinking about Veronica’s parents, and now more importantly, she is thinking about them too. 

“My parent’s jobs take them all over.” Veronica says with a sigh. Betty was thinking she would see something in Veronica’s mind that would hint at the underground dealings her parents did. Instead there was just thoughts about her parents office and their old accountant. It was clear that whatever Veronica’s parents did, in terms of crime and powers, was something Veronica knew nothing about. 

It also made it clear that Veronica didn’t have powers, which implied that either only one of her parents had powers, or the powers they had were different. 

Both parents had to have the same powers in order for the child to inherit them. Both Betty’s parents did. Although her father’s ability to read minds was not very strong. If she were really nervous or excited about something, he’d know, otherwise he wouldn’t have a clue. 

“So what do you do around here for fun?” Veronica asks, turning her back to face Jughead, focusing all her attention on Betty.

Jughead actually scoffs. Betty smiles brightly and says “We go to Pop’s. Want to come?”

The eager yes Veronica replies with is not a surprise. Jughead doesn’t come, but Betty talks Archie into joining them, not that much talking is required after she mentions the words “new” and “girl”. He has to drop by the music room first so Betty finds Veronica in the hallway and they walk over to Pop’s together.

They grab a booth near the entrance, Veronica slides in next to Betty, and they chat for a few minutes before Archie arrives. 

When Archie arrives, Veronica’s cataloging of Betty’s physical attributes, shifts off, or rather over to Archie. It’s a complete 180 and Betty is completely grateful for it. Particularly because Archie’s thoughts are all focused on Veronica. The fact that Veronica is a Lodge, is completely forgotten about, and he’s just focused on her as an attractive girl. 

After giving them a few moments to appreciate each other Betty introduces them to each other. From that point on it’s like she almost shouldn’t be in the booth with them, so absorbed are they in each other. 

Betty eats her burger and drinks her milkshake, only contributing the occasional “Yes” or “oh” to the conversation before excusing herself. 

Veronica invites her over for dinner tomorrow night and Betty says yes for the sake of sleuthing before she leaves. When she’s down the block she looks back, and sees them kissing in the neon light, and she can’t help but hope that Veronica won’t break Archie’s heart. 

Three blocks later, firmly on the southside, she calls Jughead. He’s there in minutes on his motorcycle, and he’s thinking of kissing her, and then he is kissing her.

This time it’s not a school appropriate kiss. His lips are pressed hard against hers. His are surprisingly cold at first, but a few minutes later, his tongue is in her mouth, and she can’t tell any temperature difference between them.

A stranger walks by and thinks, yuck, and that snaps Betty out of their bubble. She pulls her head back and removes her hands from his neck, when moments ago she didn’t even realize they were there.

Jughead looks a little dazed, and the back of his hair is more than a little ruffled. He’s still thinking only of her. She has to snap him out of it.

“Is this how your patrols normally start?” She teases. He laughs and shakes his head. They get on the bike together and he drives her deeper into the Southside than she’s ever been before. 

Her mother has always told her not to go there. Whenever her mother thinks of the Southside, there’s a dirt and a grit to it, a seedy-ness that isn’t as prominent on the actual streets Jughead is steering them along. 

She’s always known this was his territory and now she’s glad to see it. They stop by a bodega first, and they both go in and Jughead talks to the man behind the cash register for a moment, before moving on to the next stop. 

He essentially spends the next two hours looking for a fight. They go down every dark alley and cut through every backlot. Every business that is open they check out. 

Finally, as they are driving past a parking lot, Betty hears someone think about jingle jangle. As Betty peers into the lot, she sees one man hand another a package out of the trunk of his car. Betty nudges Jughead who pulls the bike over and parks it. Neither man looks up.

Jughead thinks stay here, and Betty nods as he runs at the seller and knocks him out with one punch. It’s kind of anti-climatic. The buyer runs off as fast as he can and Jughead zip ties the dealer and then calls FP.

Only after Jughead gets off the phone does he start to think nervous thoughts, about FP and Betty meeting. Betty has already been thinking those thoughts for several minutes now.

“I’m freaking out too.” Betty says, because it’s only fair and then she reluctantly adds “You should probably know our parents used to date.” Betty didn’t have to read his mind to know his reaction to that statement. She’d had years to grapple with it, but still hadn’t really figured it out.

FP arrives in an old beat up truck before they have time to say anything more. FP’s every other thought is a swear word as he gets out of the truck.

“Does Alice know you’re here?” is the first actual coherent sentence out of his mouth. It’s strange because this is Betty’s first time meeting FP but clearly he knows who she is, and she knows who he is. 

“Yes.” Although it’s not entirely true. Alice knows she is out with Jughead, the specifics of where they were going were not disclosed. They were both too mad at each other by then for there to be any point for the conversation continuing.

“Does Jughead know…” 

“That she can read minds - yes. That you and her mom used to date - yes. That she protects the Northside - yes.” Jughead huffs.

FP exhales and all his thoughts have calmed down. “Good. As long as we’re all on the same page I have no problems with this. Whatever it is or isn’t. I don’t want to know.”

Now Jughead’s thoughts are flooded with relief as well. Jughead heaves the drug dealer into the back of FP’s truck as if he weighed no more than a small child.

Then they continue on their way. When it is almost two in the morning, they head across town to the Pembrooke.

They make their way up the fire escape on the building across the street. Betty can’t read the Lodges from here, but at least they can see them.

They look across the street at the penthouse. The light is on in only one of the rooms. In that room, standing near the windows they can see Hiram stare at Hermione.

There is no need for Betty to read their minds, they both have anger written all across their faces. Even from this distance, Betty can see it.

Hiram opens his mouth as if to scream and a plate goes hurling across the room at his face. But instead of smashing into his face at the last second it flies up is turned on to its side and smashes down over the top of his head.

Hiram doesn’t wince or blink as the pieces fall to the ground around him. 

So that’s one mystery solved. Hermione's telekanetic and Hiram is like Jughead and FP, almost invincible. 

It also plants a question in Betty’s mind. If Veronica was made out of love, which clearly she was given her parents differing powers, what are Hiram and Hermione fighting about so viciously?

The next morning when Alice reads Betty’s mind over breakfast, Alice laughs out loud at that thought and says “Oh honey, just because they were in love once, it doesn’t mean anything for the here and the now. They could be fighting about what movie to watch for all I know. It’s much better to marry someone you like, than someone you love.”

Alice should know better than to say such things in front of Betty. Because even as those words exit her mouth Betty can see that she’s thinking Oh hell, I’m so full of shit again.

Betty nods as if she’s taking her mother’s words to heart. Instead of walking to school as she usually does, she finds Jughead out front on his bike, his spare helmet already in his hands and he’s grinning at her and brimming with exhausted joy. 

She kisses him chastity before putting the helmet on. When she glances back at the house, she can see no one, but she can swear that she can hear a strangers thoughts lurking in the periphery, just out of reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am always grateful for comments.


	3. Day 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All hail KittiLee for her wonderful beta-ing and much needed fact checking! I am so grateful.

Jughead’s walking to class when he hears Veronica say his name. He stops and turns to look at her. He still isn’t sure what to do with Veronica. 

She moved here and declared Betty her best friend. As part of that, Jughead has had to interact with her, which is awkward because all he really wants to do is make her parent’s pay for their crimes. 

Betty’s been invited to multiple family dinners, yet at the last moment Veronica’s parents suspiciously bow out. Since Betty’s never met them, she’s never really been able to get a read on them. She has become convinced that they know about her powers somehow, it seems like the only legitimate reason to avoid a high schooler.

It’s also the only real explanation for why she’s been followed for the last two weeks. Jughead hates that part. Betty keeps hearing someone’s thoughts in a fuzzy way, like a radio signal just a touch too far away. 

Jughead’s nerves feel on edge. He finds himself always looking around corners for strange men. His hands already fists. 

Jughead might be tremendously strong, exceptionally coordinated, and well trained, but he’s never been particularly fast. That’s why he has the bike after all. 

“Jughead?” Veronica says again. She’s standing too close to him but Jughead can’t step back without running into someone, the hallway is too crowded.

“Veronica.” 

“I thought you would want to come to Pop’s with Archie, Betty, and I after school today, so I could get to know you better.”

“Why?” Jughead says. Pop’s is his late night haunt, first alone and now with Betty, but usually during daylight hours he’s either in school, training, or napping. 

“So I can get to know you.”

“Why?” Jughead adds an eye roll to the question this time. 

“Because you’re my best friend’s boyfriend.” Veronica states as if it is obvious. “She has nothing but good things to say about you, and I have seen none of those good things.”

Jughead desperately wants to say, and you will never, when Betty appears out of the crowd of students, puts one arm around him and says, “See you at four, Veronica.”

“Good.” Veronica says, turning in her unpractical heels and walking away.

“Betty, you know how I feel about her.” Jughead says, staring down into Betty’s sharp green eyes. 

Of course, Betty knows exactly how he feels about Veronica. He can’t hide anything from her even if he tried. 

The strange thing about dating a mind reader is that most of the time when they’re together Jughead doesn’t talk to her at all. Instead Jughead deliberately focuses on things he wants to tell her about his life, moments and beliefs he wants to share.

It was so much easier to convey ideas in thoughts rather than words. Betty would respond to these thoughts by talking about her own life with words. If anyone were to observe them doing this, they would have thought that Betty was the talker in the relationship, and perhaps she was, but only technically. 

With Betty, Jughead could share things he never dreamed he would be able to with anyone else. It helped that she was so used to knowing everyone’s dirty secrets, their inner machinations, that it was almost impossible to shock her.

It also helped that they were both heroes, in fact most of their “dates” were technically patrols. The pre-Betty Jughead could not imagine Patrols ever being romantic, but now he knew that was not how it worked. Romance wasn’t all candlesticks and Italian food, it was the person you were with.

With Betty by his side, patrols were romantic. It turns out there were lots of opportunities to talk or think or kiss. Rooftops offered great views of the stars as well as the streets. 

They might have only been together for two weeks, but Jughead felt like he already knew Betty in a way others didn’t. That she knew him in a way that no one else ever would.

Jughead never had a romantic relationship before, but none of his non-romantic relationships seemed particularly great to him. FP always ordered Jughead around, as if their father/son relationship was in fact, a dictatorship. 

In turn, his fellow young Serpents, Sweet Pea and Fangs only listened to Jughead when he ordered them around. Sure, he knew them well, but it was only on one level. 

With Betty, it wasn’t like that. Archie always talked about Betty as if she was perfect, the golden age version of a superhero. But the Betty Jughead knew, the one she had shared with him, was different. 

She told him about how she would talk to strangers on the phone just for the pure relief of not being able to hear their thoughts, only the words that came out their mouth. Sometimes she would to pretend to be someone else just so they would stay on the line. 

“I need you there today.” Betty says a smile on her lips, she knows exactly what he’s thinking about her. “We’re going to have to confront Veronica about her parents soon. We want her to be firmly on our side, and part of that is her getting to know you.” 

Jughead hates this idea. But it’s a hard one to fight, Veronica might not technically be “dating” Archie but she is most certainly fucking him. Jughead didn’t have to be a mind reader to figure that out. Because of that Betty can’t exactly trust Archie to have her back

Betty might be undercover as Veronica’s best friend, but whatever feelings Archie has, were genuine, that was just how Archie worked.

Jughead just wants to run the Lodges out of Riverdale, Veronica and all, but that is seeming less and less likely. At least so far, the Lodges hadn’t seemed to create the same sort of chaos they had in Toledo. Still, every day Jughead was ready for the shit to hit the fan.

“I’ll be there,” he says. 

Because of his new afternoon plans, Jughead sits with Sweet Pea and Fangs at lunch, instead of Betty, like he has been lately. He doesn’t want either of them to get too pissed with him or to take it out on her.

He hasn’t confronted them directly, yet, but he can tell that neither Sweet Pea or Fangs are particularly big fans of Betty. FP’s told them to leave her alone though, so mostly they do.

Sweet Pea and Fangs are both trained to fight and protect, but they’re normal humans. Even a lazy hero like Archie could beat them without trying too hard. It’s an unfair world, but Jughead didn’t make the rules. 

Jughead’s spent his whole life around the two of them. They’ve been raised together. Fangs once almost died on Jughead’s lap. But still, they’re different than him. They like the violence more than he does. 

Lunch with them starts out fine. Jughead eats pizza and they chat about what’s going on in the Southside, who’s moved into the trailer park, who’s moved out of the trailer park. It’s nothing earth shattering but it’s comforting. 

Betty stops by the table on the way out, shoots Sweet Pea a dirty look and kisses Jughead on the top of his head, before waving goodbye. 

“She’s making you soft.” Sweet Pea remarks. 

“She’s not making me anything.” Jughead retorts.

“I heard you’re bringing her on patrols now.” 

“I am.” There is no point in denying it. FP was supporting it. Jughead’s catch rate had gone through the roof. They were expecting disaster the first few days the Lodges were in town, and while there had been an increase in criminals attempting to commit crimes, most of these crimes had been thwarted.

At least on the Southside they had been. Yesterday there were three overdoses - all on the Northside. Jughead wonders if Archie hasn’t been patrolling the same way he had before, now that Betty wasn’t there to force him to do it. 

Jughead knew things had to change soon. Either they’d have to start to patrol the Northside together as a team, or Betty would have to go back to patrolling with Archie.

“Betty’s a civilian.” Fangs says. 

“No, she’s not.” 

“The Northside princess is a hero?” Sweet Pea asks, his voice is quiet and angry. 

“Yes.” 

“Your kind?” 

Jughead tries to even imagine Betty fighting hand to hand. It seems strange. She’s all about subtlety and thoughtfulness, getting by in the shadows.

“No.”

“Tell us what kind.” Fangs says. His voice is usually soft, his tone teasing, but not right now – right now there is an edge to it.

“The kind that can read minds.” Archie says, sitting down on the bench beside Jughead. Jughead’s shocked. He hadn’t seen him around at all earlier. 

Archie and Jughead had gotten a little closer since Betty and Jughead had started dating. Jughead likes Archie, but he can’t help but resent him a little. Archie doesn’t take his job as a hero particularly seriously. Jughead is pretty sure he regularly gets eight hours sleep at night for one thing. 

Betty’s powers don’t even involve fighting, and Jughead’s pretty sure she hasn’t gotten close to that much sleep in years because of how much effort she puts into defending the citizens of this town. 

Jughead glares at Archie. 

“No shit,” Fangs says.

“Yes.” Archie leans forward on the table, and Jughead’s surprised by how menacing he looks suddenly. His whole posture implies that he’s about to pounce. “I’m a hero too, in case you were wondering, same as your friend Jug.”

“Fuck.” Sweet Pea says, and Jughead starts to figure out what’s going on here. He sometimes wishes so badly that he could read minds like Betty, because then things like this wouldn’t catch him by surprise.

But still he tries to play along with the game. Archie’s trying to make it clear to Sweet Pea and Fangs that they should stay clear of Betty. Jughead might not approve of the way Archie is going about it, but he does think it will be effective. So against his basic urges, Jughead keeps silent about how much stronger he is than Archie. 

With that Archie stands up and walks off.

“Dude, how can you date someone that knows what you’re thinking?” Sweet Pea says before Archie is even out of earshot. 

Jughead can’t resist, he raises both eyebrows and says, “Betty says she loves my thoughts.” He knows the implication in this context is very different then the implications in the context she’d said it to him, but he doesn’t think she would mind one bit. 

It’s funny, when he first learned Betty could read minds, the thing that freaked him out the most was the fact that she knew his crude physical thoughts about her. Since then she’d made it very clear that as a mind reader, almost everyone, particularly everyone in high school, had these sort of thoughts, and that his were much better than most, and now that they were dating they might even be appropriate. 

Still it’s a weird position for anyone to be in. Particularly since they hadn’t gone further than kissing, even though she knew he thought about more, and she’d been bold enough to volunteer that she did too.

“No wonder she glared at me earlier.” says Pea, his face a little flushed. Jughead is thankful when the bell rings. 

The rest of the school day passes quickly. He was hoping to take Betty to Pop’s on his bike so that they’d have a moment to themselves. With normal people he couldn’t talk on the bike, it was too loud and awkward, but with Betty he could, even if it was a one-sided conversation. 

He’s disappointed when he gets a text from Betty telling him that she’s walking there. He knows why though. Walking is a good way to pick up on other people’s thoughts, passing random strangers on a bike is mostly too fast to be helpful. 

Jughead texts back that he’ll see her there. The ride to Pop’s is quick. He keeps his eyes peeled for blond hair and a ponytail along the way, but he doesn’t spot her.

When Jughead arrives at Pop’s he sees her on the front steps, but surprisingly when he waves she doesn’t react. A moment later he realizes that she’s on the phone. He can see it cradled in her left hand.

He thinks she must be talking to her mom, because she looks agitated. Her body language even from this distance is tense. One of her toes keeps tapping. 

Jughead parks his bike where he always does at the far end of the lot where it is less likely to get bumped or harmed in anyway. As he gets off his bike, he spots something move in the periphery of his vision.

A man wearing all black, his hair almost reflective with product, crouches in the doorway of the abandoned corner store across the street from Pop’s. Jughead’s surprised by the movement, by anyone’s presence there actually. It’s not like Riverdale doesn’t have homeless people, but they’re all concentrated in the downtown mostly. 

Plus this man is definitely not homeless, that much is made clear by his shoes that cost more than Jughead’s whole outfit. 

That’s when Jughead notices who the strange man is looking at. The man hasn’t spotted Jughead yet because he’s so focused on Betty. That’s enough for Jughead to charge across the street. Instinct, training, and an urge to defend Betty, running through him.

He probably should have looked before he leapt, because he hears car breaks slam and the long swoop of a horn, but Jughead doesn’t bother to look, he’s charging at the man in black. 

The man is no longer looking at Betty. The screeching breaks and car horn have alerted him to Jughead’s presence and now his dark, sharp eyes are focused solely on Jughead.

Jughead doesn’t even see the gun in the man’s hand, but he hears it fire, hears Betty’s yell from across the street. 

It doesn’t matter though, he’s fully focused on the man in black, the man who is shooting him.

The bullets don’t stop Jughead from kicking the man in the gut, dropping him to the ground, and pressing his boot down firmly against the man’s throat. In the scuffle, the gun gets tossed out of reach. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Jughead snarls. His body’s reaction time is impressive. It’s expelled the bullets, and he can feel familiar itch of the flesh start to knit itself back together. 

The man says nothing. It might be because he’s determined not give out any information, or it might be because Jughead is cutting off too much of his air supply. 

Jughead always keeps a zip tie or two in his jacket and he’s always had a reason to be grateful for them. The mans breath has steadied. Jughead stands up and presses his foot against the man’s chest, just to make it very clear that he knows where the power lies. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Jughead says, trying to channel FP.

“His name is Andre.” Betty says. Jughead turns to see her standing there. She’s such a contrast to the man his foot is pressed against. She’s backlit by the sun, and the outfit she’s wearing is pink and conservative, she could travel back in time thirty years and not stand out. 

“Fuck you.” The man spits. The look in his eyes is desperate, like an animal that’s been trapped.

“He knows I’m reading his mind.” Betty says calmly. “This is the same man who’s been following me.”

“Who does he work for?” Jughead asks Betty. 

“Screw you.” Andre shouts. 

“Hiram Lodge.” Betty says calmly. “He’s his right hand man actually.”

“No, no, no, no.” Andre says. 

“Are you worried about what I can do to you?” Jughead says. He can feel the anger building up in his body already, even with Betty there. 

Jughead briefly thinks he should be worrying about what she might think of all this. Sure, she’s seen him hurt people before, but never in anger. Those people were not a threat to her the way Andre was. In the past there were no personal consequences.

Betty doesn’t seem to care though. Instead she answers the question Jughead asked of Andre “He’s worried about what I’m seeing in his mind. Mr. Lodge has kept very little from him.”

Jughead feels his stomach calm, his nerves calm, but the look that crosses Andre’s face indicates that the opposite is true for the henchman. 

Betty glances at her watch. “Veronica should be at Pop’s any second. She might already be there. We have to do something with Andre.”

“Call my dad.” Jughead says, thinking of FP’s number in case Betty didn’t already know it. “I’ll zip tie him out back, and then we can go to Pop’s.” 

Betty nods as Jughead leads Andre around the building 

“She’s a freak you know.” Andre snarls. Jughead almost laughs, but thinks better of it. Instead he chooses to stay silent as he leaves Andre tied to the chain link fence.

When he goes back out front, Betty’s standing there with the phone in her hands, “Your dad should be here in five minutes.” and then her mouth twitches with concern, “You can’t go into Pop’s like that.”

Jughead glances down at his shirt. There are six holes in the front, blood rimming all of them, but only slightly. 

“Shit.” He says, but this isn’t the first time he’s had to handle this particular problem. The flannel wrapped around his waist will work just fine. He unties it and puts it on, buttoning it almost all the way up to avoid revealing any of his destroyed t-shirt.

Betty laughs. “I’ve never seen you wear it like that before.”

He can’t help but smile. It’s true. He often just wears it unbuttoned and loose. 

“How does it look?”

“Good but off brand,” she says smiling. He’s used to people freaking out more about his healing abilities. He hasn’t really been injured in front of her before, so this is her first time seeing the full effect of his abilities, but she seems completely unshaken.

“I’m not as unflappable as I seem.” Betty says, raising an eyebrow, “But it does help that I’ve seen Archie go through worse, though not as quickly.” 

Jughead nods. “We’ve got to get over there. We’re probably late.”

That’s when he spots Andre’s gun on the ground. They can’t leave it there. He picks it up and wonders where he can put it, but then Betty takes it gently from his hands. She removes the remaining bullets, gives them back to Jughead, who puts them in his pocket, and then she puts the gun in her backpack.

“Remember to take that out before school tomorrow.” Jughead says, nervously. 

Betty just shrugs. “I’d much rather be caught with the gun on me, than on you.” 

She does have a point. Her reputation at school and at Riverdale, is much more likely to withstand a concealed weapon incident than his. 

Betty takes his hand and they cross the street together. Veronica and Archie are in a back booth, and Jughead doesn’t need to read minds to know what they’re both thinking about. It’s painfully obvious, plus Betty’s blushing slightly. After they scoot into the booth, Jughead takes her hand and rests it on his thigh. 

Veronica immediately switches gears to focus on them, and Jughead can tell that Archie’s a little put off by how easily he’s left behind. 

“So what’s up?” Veronica asks.

“The ceiling.” Jughead replies, feeling particularly cranky. Betty jostles him lightly in the ribs. It’s uncomfortably warm in Pop’s and Jughead has to force himself not to unbutton his flannel. 

Veronica rolls her eyes “Why were you two lovebirds late?”

“Sorry. My mom called.” Betty says evenly.

“That’s a boring excuse if I ever heard one.” Veronica says and then she focuses all her attention on Jughead, “Please tell me you’re treating our girl right.”

Jughead hated the way Veronica implied that Betty belonged to her as much as she did to him. Not that Betty belonged to anyone, but they were hardly on the same tier. Betty presses closer to him so that their shoulders are touching. It calms him down. Prevents him from overreacting over a three letter word.

“I try.” Jughead says, although he supposes that both Betty and he deserve the occasional date night that is not also a work night. He really should rectify that at some point.

“What do you do for fun?” Veronica asks.

It’s not a question that’s easy to answer. Jughead has never had more than minimal free time, and while he likes movies and books, outside of the few times the flu has put him out of commission, he hasn’t really had an opportunity to read or watch much.

“Date Betty. Ride the bike,” is the answer Jughead offers. He’s unhappy with it, but he supposes that it will have to do for the time being. 

“Jughead also writes.” Betty offers up. Jughead laughs. He’s always thought of the way he strings sentences together in his head as writing, making the world he lives in a more interesting place, by phrasing things as well as he can, but he knows it doesn’t really count because he doesn’t put it on paper. Although maybe he should start. Betty’s made it clear to him how good she thinks he is at putting words in a certain order.

“Oh. What do you write about?”

“Riverdale.” Jughead says, although mostly he thinks about the Southside, the place he lives, not the place he goes to school in. 

“It’s not a very interesting subject.” Veronica says, her eyes bright and sharp, as if challenging him. 

He wonders if that’s how her parents justify all this to themselves, by saying this isn’t a very interesting town, by reducing it to just another spot on a map. He doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t have to, because Veronica’s phone rings.

“Oh it’s daddy, I should get this.” She stands up and exits the booth. 

Archie leans over the formica table top right away and focuses a glare on Jughead, who had up to this moment, mostly forgotten about him. “Would it kill you to be nicer?” Archie grits out.

“She’s the daughter of our enemy.” Jughead says.

“That’s different than being our enemy.” 

“Shush.” Betty says. Jughead and Archie move to protest but then they both spot Veronica striding back towards their booth, her dress swishing, a giant smile on her face, and they fall silent. 

When she reaches the booth, she slides back in beside Archie and says “You are all invited to a dinner party with my parents tomorrow. They desperately want to meet you.”

Jughead doesn’t dare look at Betty, but she knows what he’s thinking. Archie looks a little nervous, but more in the way one would get before meeting the parents of the person they’ve been seeing, then the way one would look before meeting an infamous crime boss. 

Still, Jughead is slightly surprised when two minutes later FP calls to tell them that somehow Andre broke free from the zip ties and is nowhere to be found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Always grateful for comments. The next chapter is half written so the update should be a little quicker! But we will see, it's a bit of a crazy work month/spring/summer for me. Oh and sorry for that chapter count. It keeps sneaking up.


	4. Day 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a debt of gratitude is owed to KittiLee for her wonderful beta-ing! Also she made a wonderful image for it, so you can go to Tumblr (I'm the same name over there) and check it out!

Betty carefully applies a layer of pink lipstick, while looking in the mirror. Jughead is lying on her bed. He’s not asleep or fully awake, his thoughts are hazy and strange, half real, half dream. 

Betty’s not capable of reading actual dreams, a fact she is very thankful for. She hates her own nightmares enough, she doesn’t want to see anyone else's.

Jughead’s black clad body is a contrast to her pink duvet, but he looks at peace and his thoughts are comforting. He’s thinking about her and cuddles, and then his thoughts move to her lips. Betty feels a smile on hers. 

He’s so good to her. He loves her. Though he hasn’t said those words out loud, he thinks them all the time. He knows she knows. Even though she knows that she loves him in a way that seems irreversible, she hasn’t said it out loud yet. She likes feeling it in the quiet between them.

She knows she has to tell him soon with words, because only one of them is capable of reading minds. Because of that she’s tried to be very forthright with him, honest about everything she usually is not. It’s the only way to even their footing. To really make themselves partners.

When Betty first kissed Jughead in the hall, such a short time ago, she hadn’t thought it would progress to this. She thought it would be like normal dating, which seemed slow and full of tension, even though neither of them were normal. 

Because she was able to read Jughead’s mind, because she knew the way he thought so well, there was nothing hidden from here. She couldn’t worry about where he was emotionally, because she knew. Not having to deal with the kind of miscommunication she was used to witnessing between couples at school and on sitcoms, made everything better. 

Betty looks at her reflection in the mirror. She looks ready for a “meet the parents” dinner, in a nice pale blue dress with pink cardigan, but she’s already packed her bag with an outfit for their patrol after. That is if the evening goes well with Veronica’s parents. 

There is going to be some sort of confrontation tonight. Betty knows that much to be true. She just hopes it isn’t physical. 

Under normal circumstances Alice would be all over this, and probably forbidding them to go, but Alice isn’t here. 

Every month Alice goes away for a long weekend. A PI firm pays her a lot of money to tail targets and find out all their dirty secrets. It’s a lucrative side job, one that keeps The Register afloat and the Cooper’s well funded.

Betty doesn’t think she could do it. It’s one thing to use her powers to keep her city safe, it’s another to use them for profit. But Alice seems to enjoy it, not just because of the money either. She loves knowing the secrets of the rich and sometimes the famous. 

The only upside from Betty’s perspective, was that the week after Alice came home, she was always in a genuinely good mood. 

Jughead’s thoughts become more fully formed. He’s thinking about the dinner now, and Betty can feel his anxiety from across the room, so she stands up and walks over to him.

His eyes are open now. She lies next to him, then puts her leg over his, and her head against his chest. His thoughts switch from the Lodges to her immediately, it’s almost funny. Betty presses her lips against his cheek. 

“I love this dress.” Jughead says, although he’s not thinking about the dress.

Betty leans over and kisses him softly. He deepens the kiss. His hand cups her face, and she tugs off his hat and runs her hand through his hair. Only when they break for air does Betty realize how flushed her whole body feels. 

Jughead’s lips are covered in a layer of her lipstick and she laughs, before dragging him over to the mirror to show him. He grimaces and uses a wet wipe from her vanity to wipe it off. 

The whole time he is thinking, do you want me as much as I want you?, and Betty forces her mouth to say “Yes. But not yet.”

Why not?, he thinks, and she wonders if he’s aware of the doubts he still has sometimes. She wants him to feel as safe as possible when they’re together.

“I’m not sure you’re ready.” Betty says softly.

“Are you ready?”

“Probably” Betty says honestly. She’s sure of him, but not of her, if that makes sense.

Jughead is thinking about her hypocrisy and his. How they both want the best for each other. 

“Soon,” she says kissing him again, before realizing belatedly how much they have to rush to be there on time. 

Jughead glances in the mirror once before he leaves, and Betty knows he’s checking for any more lipstick, but there isn’t any. 

The car ride to the Pembrooke is filled with thoughts of how nervous and hungry he is. Betty almost laughs. If he was hungry he really should have eaten at her house, because even though they were invited over for dinner by Veronica’s parents, she very much doubts that much actual eating will take place.

When Hermione and Hiram welcome them into the lavishly appointed apartment, Betty smells something wonderful, not perfume but garlic. So perhaps there will be food after all. 

Because Veronica’s not aware of her parent’s powers or how extreme their criminal behavior is, whatever discussion is going to take place tonight is going to have to be covert. 

Hermione and Hiram are both good actors, and good hosts. Archie and Veronica are already in the living room. Archie, unlike Jughead, has actually dressed up. Betty thinks that has something to do with the fact that Archie wants to impress Veronica’s parents. Whereas Jughead’s thoughts towards them have stayed less than kind.

Jughead’s thoughts towards all three Lodges do improve over dinner. Veronica makes a joke about his least favorite teacher that he wholeheartedly approves of and the pasta dish Hermione made pleases him even more than Pop’s burgers. 

Still on the edges of all his good thoughts are skepticism and nerves. Betty understands as well. She feels like any second a switch could flip and everything will go sideways.

Hermione and Hiram are focused on neutral topics like the importance of good olive oil, or which nearby city has the best local shops. Their thoughts feel unnaturally bland and censored, but that’s not entirely unexpected. They are clearly trying to block her. In normal situations this wouldn’t be possible, but with so many people in the room it’s easy. Betty’s powers are not as effective in this kind of group. 

So Betty nods and answers all the questions they ask her. She compliments both the meal and the room. Jughead gets himself a fourth serving. 

One of the difficult things about dating Jughead is that while she is 100% aware of his feelings and where his head is at, Betty has no way to convey her feelings to him. He keeps wondering if he’s alone in his apprehension and she has no way to assure him that he’s not. They should come up with a code word or something. 

The mood only changes at the end of dinner, when Hermione asks Veronica to serve dessert. Once Veronica takes Archie into the kitchen with her, both parents narrow their eyes and Betty finds her posture straightening. 

It’s an uncomfortable position to be in. After all Betty and Jughead might have powers, but so do Hermione and Hiram. Betty wishes that they had at least given FP a heads up about all this. But Jughead was always nervous to let his father into anything. 

“Can we drop the pretenses?” Betty asks. “I take it Andre told you everything.’

Hiram smiles. “He did. I have to admit that he was a little surprised to discover Jughead had powers.”

“It’s funny that you didn’t know about me, because I already knew about you,” Jughead says. Betty feels Jughead’s palm press against her thigh suddenly. Jughead’s thoughts race and scatter and Betty knows he needs comfort. She presses her hand over his. 

“How?” Hermione asks. Betty can read her mind clearer now that Veronica and Archie are gone, now that they’ve all been forced to talk more openly. Hermione is thinking about how screwed they already are. 

Hiram’s thoughts are much more confident, but Betty thinks that confidence is based more on arrogance then fact. It feels like a front, one they can shatter with some work. She wishes she could convey even a little of this to Jughead. His thoughts are nervous and racing, but when he opens his mouth to talk, his tone is steady and confident.

“I was in Toledo.” Jughead says. “My mom’s based out of there.”

Internally both Lodges swear and Hermione's thoughts go black with panic.

“What have you told our daughter?” Hiram asks.

Betty is shocked at how quickly the confidence is stripped from him. But it makes sense in a way. The constant moving Veronica spoke of comes to mind and Betty realizes that he’s an entirely different kind of villain than the Blossoms who would die before leaving Riverdale. He doesn’t give two shits about places, he cares about money. He wants to cut his losses, he has before and he will again.

That’s why he’s a millionaire and the Blossoms owe back taxes they will never pay, but still manage to wear designer clothes and drive fancy cars.

“We haven't told Veronica anything,” Betty says. “And we won’t whisper even a single incriminating word if you leave now.” This is the bargain Hiram is willing to make, it’s all he’s thinking about right now. Betty’s grown to like Veronica, she will definitely miss her, but it’s more important that Veronica’s parents leave. 

Betty is like the Blossoms in this way, as much as she loathes to admit it, Riverdale is more important than the people passing through it.

“Fine. It will take a week.” Hiram says calmly. Both he and Hermione are relieved. This is going far better than Betty dared to hope. Jughead’s thoughts are similarly giddy, although he’s managed to keep a straight face.

“Two days.” Jughead growled.

“Fine.” Hiram says. That is when Veronica comes marching out of the kitchen, heels clacking, carrying a chocolate cake. Archie is right behind her, still thinking of the kiss he and Veronica shared in the kitchen. Betty really wishes he was a little more focused. He seems oblivious to the tension in the room. 

Veronica becomes more aware of it halfway through dessert. Betty hears her thoughts switch tracks and hears her worry about if Betty and Jughead have figured out her parents are criminals. 

The kind of crimes Veronica thinks her parents commit are all white collar and close to victimless, a far cry from the blood Jughead talked about in Toledo, the jingle jangle they’d intercepted here. 

Veronica’s worries grow as she notes that Jughead is barely eating his cake. Betty doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that something is wrong about the cake. It tastes too gritty to be satisfying. Instead Betty distracts Veronica by mentioning the possibility of cheerleading tryouts. 

Before Betty knows it the dinners over and she’s offering Hermione and Hiram a polite “thank you.”

Archie’s practically bouncing as they walk down the hallway. He’s as giddy as a kid who has had too much cotton candy. Betty knows why, but she wishes she didn’t. Still she keeps her mouth shut till they’re in her car across the street from the Pembrooke.

She’s in the driver’s seat, Jughead’s shotgun and Archie’s in the back. She’s buckling her seatbelt when Archie breaks the silence.

“Veronica and I are actually dating now.” Archie says. A smile on his face. 

Betty tries to come up with a way to soften the blow, but for once Jughead’s quick to speak “Archie, the Lodges have two days to leave Riverdale.”

A confused look crosses Archie’s face, but still he locks his seatbelt into place “Why?” 

“Because we threatened them. They already knew Betty read Andre’s mind. We told you all that.”

“Shit.” Archie says and Betty can feel his thoughts race between anger and panic like a dog chasing it’s own tail. 

“This is good news.” Jughead says, as if Archie’s dense.

“Would it be good news if Betty was the one leaving town?” Archie snarls. 

“No, of course not. Her parents aren't manufacturing jingle jangle. Don’t be absurd.”

“So? Veronica is not her parents.” Archie’s just mad now. Betty can feel the pureness of his anger run through him. He’s thinking so many terrible thoughts about Jughead, the southside, the grimy-ness of it that he sees on Jughead, the anger he feels about the Serpents, even though he knows what they really do.

Angry thoughts always scare Betty. They have a life of their own, full of twists and turns. She knows from experience that the best way to deal with them is giving the other person time and space. 

“If Veronica could stay without her parents, we would want that.” Betty says softly. She reaches out to touch Archie’s hand lightly. There’s a lot of history between them. Years of friendship and reluctant work on his part. His anger lightens a little. “But her parents made it clear that they wouldn’t leave without her.”

“Would you let Jughead move?” Archie asks. 

Betty wants to say yes, even though it’s a lie. Jughead may have only started to date her a few weeks ago, but she’s known him well for years, even if he didn’t know her that way. There is a good reason she’s often sat at the lunch table adjacent to The Serpents. 

Still she doesn’t want to hurt Jughead in anyway. He’s used to being given only scraps of love and affection. He’s accustomed to being viewed as a tool, not a person. She can’t let him think she views him that way even for a second.

“No, but FP keeps the Southside safe. It’s an entirely different situation.”

“But I love her.” Archie says, and Betty knows that it is almost the truth, but not yet. “I’m going to tell her.” 

Archie unbuckles his seatbelt, and Betty’s glad Jughead never got around to buckling his in the first place, because Jughead has to dive between the front seats of the car to get to the back seat. 

Archie’s hand is on the door, but Jughead pulls it away. Archie punches Jughead and Jughead returns the favor. Betty’s too close to the fight to really see what their legs are doing, but it’s a mad scramble in the back seat. 

Betty undoes her buckle and shifts in her seat to get a better view. There is nothing she can do. Besides it’s not really a fair contest. 

Archie’s thoughts are all on Veronica, whereas every fiber of Jughead’s being is thinking about the fight and the fight only. 

Betty watches Jughead deliver the punch that knocks Archie out, but by that point, Jughead is already sitting on top of Archie, like he was a bench (a bench during an earthquake but still a bench). 

It’s only after Archie’s knocked out that Betty notices Veronica’s thoughts. Betty looks up to see Veronica peering through the window, a look of shock on her face. Betty can practically see down her throat her mouth is so wide open. 

Veronica starts to run, which in this situation is probably the most sensible reaction. “Get her. Bring her back,” Betty says. 

Jughead’s out of the car and his hand covers her mouth. 

Betty joins them on the pavement. It’s a good thing it’s late. Betty can’t see or hear anyone notice them. 

“Veronica. This isn’t what it seems, but you have to trust me.” Betty says softly, taking one of her hands and wrapping it around Veronica’s. Veronica’s trembling but she squeezes back. 

“Jug. Help her into the backseat. We will take them both to my house.”

“Ok.” Jughead says, opening the back door, and loosening his grip on Veronica so she can get in. 

Veronica’s thoughts are 90% expletives the whole drive over, and Betty can’t blame her, but she does find it distracting. She’s trying to focus on the road and all Veronica is thinking of is curses. 

Jughead has the foresight to call FP to meet them at the Cooper house. Betty’s surprised to see his bike already in the driveway. She’s less pleased to Sweet Peas’ and Fangs already there as well. 

She knows they know what she is, but she doesn’t trust them, she doesn’t like them. Sweet Pea particularly views women like they’re another species and that always puts her on edge. 

Jughead carries Archie out of the car in a fireman hold. The redhead is still completely unconscious.

All three are waiting on the front porch. Veronica’s calmer now, and she manages to arch an eyebrow at them before following Betty inside. 

Jughead dumps Archie on the sofa unceremoniously. 

Veronica sits down on one of the easy chairs, she makes it look like a throne before she says, “Spit it out.”

No one is eager to answer. Betty thinks she should, but she also can’t figure out quite how to phrase it. She knows Veronica well enough to know that she’s a wild card. She could side with her parents or them. It was less about morals and more about feelings. 

“What doesn’t she know?” Sweet Pea asks. 

“Everything.” Jughead volunteers. 

“Your parents are mother fucking villains.” Sweet Pea says. “Jug and FP already fought them in Toledo. They’re drug manufacturers. They’ve set up a lab here. They make and distribute jingle jangle, which has a whole lot in common with meth in terms of addiction and death rates. Want to look ten years older in a month, just take the stuff you’re parents are cooking up”

Betty would not have phrased it so bluntly of course, but she doesn’t think being polite would really make any of this better, not in this situation. 

Besides, it doesn’t really matter. At this point even the non mind readers in the room can tell that Veronica doesn’t believe them.

“I know they dabble in crime, but drugs? That doesn’t make any sense, and why would Jughead be in Toledo? Besides why would you trust Jughead? He’s a bit of an asshole and he’s in a gang, don’t gangs distribute drugs?”

Betty must let some of her feelings about the casual accusations leveled at Jughead show on her face because Veronica turns to her and says “Sorry, B. I know that to you he’s a sweetheart, but that’s not how he is to anyone else.”

Betty just shrugs. “Jughead’s pretty much invincible. Andre shot him in the chest yesterday before we met you at Pop’s. He and FP were in Toledo helping out Jug’s mom. The Serpents are more like vigilantes or a community watch than criminals.”

“Invincible you say?” Veronica stands, walks over to Jughead, and punches him straight in the face. Jughead doesn’t even flinch, no injury forms either, even temporarily. The punch wasn’t as effective as Veronica meant it to be, but Betty’s not about to point that out. 

“So you all have superpowers? Like in the movies?” Veronica asks, still skeptical. “What’s Archie’s? Betty’s?”

“Not everyone has superpowers, Princess.” Sweet Pea says, gesturing to himself and Fangs. 

“Archie’s the same as me. Just less good at it,” Jughead says with a shrug. “Betty can read minds.”

Veronica’s thoughts are skeptical and horrified. She doesn’t actually believe Betty can read minds but if on the off chance it’s true, she doesn’t like it at all. 

“What am I thinking right now?” Betty and Veronica say at the exact same time. Followed by an identical “Holy shit. 

“So you know things about me that I’ve never told you?” Veronica asks.

“She knows you were really attracted to her,” Jughead says. Betty knows he’s been itching to confront her about that for a while now. 

“Did you just out me?” Veronica says.

“No one here cares.” Fangs shrugs. “And they’ve all just told you some very personal information.”

“Fair.” Veronica seems calmer now. She’s settled back in the armchair. “Do my parents have powers too?”

Betty’s surprised Veronica’s never caught them in the act. But one can be so used to viewing what ones parents do as normal that it can be harder for their actions to stand out as weird. 

“Your mother is telekinetic and your dad is like Jughead and FP.” Betty spells out.

Betty sees how easily the information slots into place, in Veronica’s head. Mysteries she never knew needed to be solved, suddenly are. 

Veronica nods and then says, “But having powers doesn’t make them bad.”

FP walks up to Veronica and hands her his phone. Betty can hear the sound of a video playing, but there is too much static on the low quality mic to make out the words. Betty goes to stand behind the chair Veronica’s sitting on so she can watch it too.

At first all you can see on screen is Hiram and Hermione talking to a third man. Betty can tell that more people are there because there keeps being movement at the edges of room. 

Veronica grips the cell phone with both hands till the tips of her fingers go white. At first her thoughts are tinged with disbelief, but by the end, when Hiram strangles the drug dealer he’s been arguing with with his bare hands, the only thoughts in Veronica’s head are horror filled.

That’s not even the worst part because then someone in the shadows, just half visible, fires a gun at Hermione. Betty hears the shots, one after another, after another. She can’t see anything at first, then she makes out three bullets off to the side and realizes that they are all frozen in midair. After a few seconds, Hermione makes a small gesture that sends all three bullets back at the person who shot at her. They slump to the ground.

“How did you get this footage?” Veronica asks.

“Jug’s mom sent it to me. It’s from a warehouse in Toledo. One of the Serpents there works security at that warehouse and recorded this. 

“So what are you going to do about it?” Veronica asks, anger in every word. 

“We’ve given them two days to leave town and they’ve agreed.”

Archie groans from the sofa as he wakes, his eyes flashing wide and his head so jam packed full of thoughts, Betty can’t sort one from the other. Everyone stares at him as he sits up.

It helps Veronica think, to have everyone distracted by Archie. Veronica’s furious, not just about her parents actions but the fact that they kept them from her from years, that she never suspected that they had powers, that she thought of such thinks as fictional before tonight. Dismissing anything strange that happened to or around her parents as normal. 

She hates that they’re super villains, killers and drug dealers, but what makes her more determined to fight them is the simple fact that they kept all this from her. That they still treated her like a child when she no longer was one. 

Veronica still loves her parents, that much is clear, but the anger surpasses all that. Now she’s thinking of all her childhood memories, and questioning them. Wondering where her father actually was for all those months in July? Asking herself if Smithers actually retired or did he disappear for entirely different reasons?

Betty is so relived by Veronica’s thoughts that she has to stop herself from audibly sighing with relief. 

“We’re taking my parents down.” Veronica says calmly. “I never want them to wreak havoc on a town again.”

“How are we going to do that?” Jughead asks. “I don’t know if you missed the memo, but your parents are pretty powerful.”

Veronica smiles and Betty does too. Because Veronica’s plan is genius in terms of its simplicity. “It’s easy, all you have to do is kidnap me,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is taking so long! I'm pretty sure i've written much longer work much faster, but we are almost at the end! I'm extra busy with work, but I'm hoping to finish this in early June.
> 
> I'm so grateful for your support and always appreciate comments!


	5. Day 16 (and on)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, huge thanks to KittiLee for helping me navigate a tricky chapter! This work as a whole is so much stronger because of her.
> 
> Secondly, um, I don't know how else to say this, I wrote smut, but just like a smidge of not very graphic, important to the plot smut. Still it is unprecedented and no one is more surprised than me.
> 
> Still if you want to skip it, skim past after Jughead and Betty taking off their clothes. I think it's four maybe five paragraphs.

“Do you think Veronica overestimated how much her parents give a shit?” Sweet Pea says. He’s at Jughead’s right side. They are on the roof of a one-story building overlooking the park where Veronica is being “held hostage” by FP. 

It’s an easy jump for Jughead, but for Pea it will be tricky to descend that way. Jughead hopes he takes the stairs when the time comes. 

Or rather, IF the time comes. Veronica’s parents are already ten minutes late. Jughead’s legs twitch with anticipation, his nerves are on edge. 

Still FP and Veronica are frozen in the positions they chose ten minutes earlier. FP has an unloaded gun pressed into the small of Veronica’s back. Jughead can’t see it from his vantage point, but Archie can from his on the other side of the park. 

Anyone passing could see. But it’s eleven at night on the Southside. Anyone who did happen to pass by the park, would be too terrified to repeat the tale.

Imprisoning villains was tricky. A normal cell wouldn’t be able to contain them. They would be able to escape within days. Larger cities had effective facilities designed to keep powers dampened and ineffective. However these facilities were expensive to maintain. In order to contain someone with abilities, one had to pay a lot of money. It was so much cheaper for the local heroes to force the villains to move along to a new town, where they would be someone else’s problem. 

As far as Veronica was concerned, that wasn’t punishment enough for the crimes her parents had committed, the crimes they would probably continue to commit, just in a new location. Veronica wanted them locked up forever. 

Her plan is simple. She had FP call her parents and demand 2 million dollars’ worth of ransom for her safe return. More than enough money to pay their prison fees indefinitely. Their plan was to take the money and capture Hiram and Hermione, so that they could turn them over to the NYC Villain Detainment Center at Ryker’s. 

On the phone Hiram had sounded both angry and upset, and everyone had assumed he had taken the bait. Now Jughead wasn’t so sure. 

Archie was the only one who hated the plan from the start and now Jughead thinks he might have been right. But Archie couldn’t change Veronica’s mind any more than the others. Particularly because Veronica is currently pissed at Archie for reasons unknown. She refused to even make eye contact with him earlier.

Even from the rooftop, Jughead can see that Veronica’s struggling to keep an alarmed look on her face. But it’s late, and she’s tired. Her mouth keeps slipping into a neutral position.

Jughead doesn’t want to say it out loud yet, but he thinks Pea is right. He’d be surprised if Veronica’s parents show up at this point. They might be long gone to a new town now. Still, he didn’t want to tell Veronica that, and no one else seemed able to either. 

He really wishes Betty was here, that way at least he wouldn’t be alone with his thoughts. Jughead could talk to Sweet Pea of course, but it wasn’t the same. 

Being with Betty had destroyed traditional conversation for him. The seamlessness of thinking with her there, was irreplaceable. He’d tried conveying this to FP at some point, but he’d just grunted about it being young love and hormones. 

Jughead’s not dismissing that those may be factors, but they frankly seem minor in the scheme of things. He’s always felt like no one in his life really knew him before Betty came around. FP thinks of him as a sidekick more or less, and Sweat Pea and Fangs think of him as a team member. Everyone else assumed the worst about him for most of his life.

Betty sees art in him when no one else does. She talks about the way he thinks as if it’s something worthy of praise, of trying to preserve and share it with the world through the printed word. Betty sees the violence he inflicts on others, but she doesn’t reduce him to that.

“Are you thinking about your girl again?” Sweet Pea asks. He keeps fidgeting with an unlit cigarette. Smoking would draw the wrong kind of attention, so they can’t, but Pea’s clearly impatient to light it.

“Yeah,” Jughead says. There’s no point in hiding it. Betty is at home on Elm street. There isn’t much point to her being here, outside of company. One shouldn’t to bring a mind reader to a gun fight. The odds of her getting hurt outweigh any potential help she could offer. Even though he was feeling lonely, he understood that.

“I don’t know how you could date someone that can read your mind,” Sweet Pea says. “It’s an invasion of privacy. “

“I want her to know everything.” 

“You’re never going to be able to throw her a surprise party.”

“I’m never going to throw anyone a surprise party,” Jughead laughs. 

There’s movement down below in the square and Jughead’s focus immediately switches to that instead. It’s just a stray cat running across the park.

Jughead glances down again at the time. Veronica’s parents are now twenty minutes late. That doesn’t seem right.

“I think they’re gone,” Pea says quietly. 

Jughead knows they can’t just stay here and wait. They have to find out if Hiram and Hermione have really left.

Since he knows what’s it like to have a parent choose something else over their child, Jughead probably should have warned Veronica about the pain that comes with the loss of a parent. 

Sure, Gladys chose saving Ohioan’s over raising him, but that at least was a more noble option than drug manufacturing. She was technically only a phone call away, but it was still a loss he felt every day, even though it happened over a decade ago.

Veronica’s parents have treated her lavishly her whole life. Her father referred to her as a princess repeatedly at the dinner party. This was going to hurt a hell of a lot more.

“Pea, go to the Pembrooke to check their apartment and then text me. If it’s empty, that means they moved on without Veronica.” 

Because getting the Lodges to move on to a new town was in fact the original goal, it’s not really much of a loss for The Serpents. The same couldn’t be said for Veronica. If she hadn’t sided with them, she would probably be safely ensconced in a town car right now.

“Shouldn’t we check with FP?” Pea asks. FP is the one in charge after all. He’s the one that’s supposed to be giving out orders. He always seems to enjoy giving them out a whole lot more than Jug does. 

He’s going to have to start making the bigger decisions- about the safety of the city, about the effectiveness of their team – so he might as well start now. 

Besides if they contact FP right now and Hermione and Hiram are around, they would see, and any hope, however small, of tricking them would be long gone. 

“Just go,” Jughead growls, making sure to layer menace into his voice. Pea just shrugs, and heads down the fire escape. 

Jughead watches as Pea disappears from sight. It starts to drizzle. His whole body shivers. He hunches over further, tucking his chin against his knees to conserve heat.

Down in the park, FP and Veronica are probably really cold. But they stay there, as if frozen in time. Veronica hasn’t moved at all since they got there.

Jughead gets a text from Archie that asks, - **When are we going to give up?**

**Soon** \- Jughead texts back. His sweater, now damp, was not helping with the cold and the cold was not helping him focus on what was supposed to happen next.

A minute later, when his hands start to visibly shake, he gets a text from Pea. The Pembrooke is entirely empty. Not so much as a loose coin was left behind. Hermione and Hiram are in the wind and there is nothing they can do about it. 

Jughead calls FP, who moves away from Veronica, shoves the gun in a holster, and then answers the call. 

Veronica starts sobbing before FP can even respond to Jughead. She bends forward at the waist, bracing her arms against her knees. Jughead’s not sure if she’s struggling to breath or trying not to throw up.

Jughead heads down the fire escape, and when he reaches them FP has Veronica wrapped in a hug. Jughead can’t remember his father ever being so comforting before, but he gets it in a way. He’s started to admire Veronica. She’s got grit and determination. Attributes that are valued on the Southside.

Archie is running towards Veronica from the building across the park, but she turns away from him in anger. 

Jughead just hopes Veronica wasn’t regretting the choices that she made, that whatever she held against Archie was just normal couple drama. In any case, Archie takes a few steps back and then leaves without a backwards glance. Jughead glimpses tears on Archie’s face as he turns.

Jughead ends up being the one who gives Veronica a ride over to Betty’s. 

Betty is still up but answers the door in pajama bottoms and a Riverdale Public Library t-shirt. Jughead reads on Betty’s bed while Veronica cries in the guest room. First alone, and then throwing her whole body against Betty’s. Tears soaking Betty’s shirt and her own. 

Whatever Betty does or says must help Veronica calm down because she eventually stops crying. The sound of sobbing is replaced by murmurs.

Jughead must fall asleep at some point because as Betty crawls into bed later, Jughead’s eyes open. There is a night light on, but otherwise the room is dark. “What time is it?” he asks.

“Three AM.” She scoots in beside him. They’ve never spent the night together before. It was too tricky between her mom, his patrols, and his dad. But her parents are still out of town and he’s sure his dad is preoccupied. 

She’s colder than he is, so he rucks up her shirt and presses his hand against her cool stomach. 

Betty sighs with contentment. In that moment Jughead feels more powerful than he ever has before, even the time he survived an eight-story fall.

“I love you,” Betty says. 

Jughead almost laughs, even as he feels filled with relief. “I knew it.” 

“Hey!” Betty protests.

“I know you know I love you. I think about it all the time,” Jughead says, rearranging Betty’s position so she’s facing him, and then he kisses her. It’s soft and filled with love.

When Betty pulls away, her facial expression has shifted. There is concern written all over it, but somehow Jughead knows, just by the way her eyes are still bright, that it doesn’t involve him. 

“That’s why Veronica’s mad at Archie.”

Jughead’s surprised by the sudden conversation change, but of course that would be on Betty’s mind. She’s spent the last few hours comforting Veronica, after all. 

“What do you mean?” Jughead asks. “She loves him and he doesn’t love her back?”

“No, silly. Vice versa. He told her he loves her. She’s not there yet. She’s not in that mind space at all actually.”

“Oh,” Jug says. Although he doesn’t really get it actually. He would say ‘I love you’ to Betty, regardless of how shitty the rest of his life was.

Betty’s reading his mind, as always, and so she says, “You really don’t get it, Jug. The only two other people who’ve ever told her they loved her, turned out to be villains pushing drugs and capable of murder, and that was before they abandoned her.”

“Oh.” Jughead says the same word he did before, but this time he actually gets what she’s saying. 

“The whole concept of love feels false to her right now.”

There were times in Jughead’s life where he certainly felt that way. He and FP have never had the best relationship, and his relationship with his mother is more of one with a colleague than a family member.

But for him, that just made the love he felt from Betty, and the love he felt for her, seem even more impressive. Like tapping into another better version of the universe, he never suspected existed.

All his life he’s lived in a small town - fought for it, bled for it, got bad grades for it. He sacrificed everything for the Southside, and it defined his whole identity. That is it did, until Betty kissed him in that hallway. 

Sure, he still had to sacrifice most of his time and effort for the place he lived, but it wasn’t the same because of Betty. The way she could take the bleakest moment, and by sharing it with him, she could make it shine.

“I love you so much,” Jughead says. He no longer feels tired. His whole body feels flushed with heat, with energy, even though right now he’s doing nothing more than holding Betty’s hand.

“I love you too.” Betty lets go of his hand in that moment. She sits up and he’s about to ask her what she’s doing, but by then she’s already doing it. She lays down on top of him, the crown of her head is nestled right under his chin, and her body is pressed directly into his. He can feel every part of her through their thin clothes. 

She can feel every part of him too. She laughs against his chest and it feels like a gentle tickle.

It’s hard to separate their bodies then, but they do. They can’t get their clothes off quickly enough. 

Jughead has spent a lot of time around Sweet Pea and Fangs and heard more about both their sex lives than he ever wanted to. It gave him some expectations about sex with Betty that turn out to be incorrect (thankfully). 

He expected everything to be awkward during and after, because it’s the first time for both of them. Fangs actually caught his shirt on fire his first time.

It’s not to say that there is no fumbling between them, but Betty knows every thought he has, and so she knows what he needs, what he wants, if he longs for more, or if something doesn’t quite work. If she’s surprised by some his thoughts, she doesn’t say anything.

All of this would have felt uneven to Jughead, normally Betty is verbal with him, quick to give feedback with words, so that he doesn’t feel left out of the loop. This time there is no need for that, because as Jughead’s fingers slip into her, he feels as if he can hear her thoughts, muffled and far away, but audible. 

It’s not because she’s vocalizing them (although she does moan, soft and long), but because it’s almost as if he can feel what she’s feeling, like in this moment in the dimly lit room, he too can read minds, or rather only the mind that matters most to him. 

Not everything is clear, but the big thoughts, of more, and there, and oh this forever, he understands. In fact he can almost feel them, rushing through his system, threatening to overwhelm.

When he enters her fully, it’s as if what was heard faintly before is now felt in every part of his body. It’s as if they are connected in every way. But it’s not just him who feels different he thinks. She feels different too – invincible beneath him - as if they are actually sharing talents.

Jughead stops for a second to test this theory, he feels her sigh with his whole body. Jughead sucks a hickey onto her neck. He pulls back and sees the skin grow red for a second, then transition back into pale white, like a footprint in the sand erased by a wave. 

In the moment it doesn’t even seem remarkable. There is no need for words, their I love you’s roll back and forth between them as he moved again.

Betty should be in pain. Both of them know enough about sex to know that, but the abilities that he’s sharing with her make the aches that come brief, not lingering. Sparks of pain cross her mind and are gone again in a half second. The ache and ow replaced with oh, please, and more, with wordless thoughts that spiral joyously upwards. 

After, when Betty goes to clean up, Jughead feels the loss of connection, but also the wonderful knowledge that it will return, that the thing they share between them, has unexpected nuances and gifts. A whole different level to their powers that they could have never imagined.

Jughead wonders if this is just how sex works with powers, but he knows that he will never ask anyone if it’s the case. Even more than that, he would never tell them how it is between him and Betty. It felt like more than powers, it felt like magic.

Betty kisses the base of his neck as she slips in beside him, now wearing a pair of gray floral PJ’s. 

“I love you.” Jughead says out loud, the word forever, a promise on the top of his mind as he plunges into sleep. 

The next morning they sleep in late and decide to skip school. At breakfast, Jughead scoots his chair right next to Betty’s, so there is no space between them. 

Veronica comes down later, when they’re watching TV. Betty’s legs are resting on top of Jughead’s.

Veronica joins them. She eats popcorn while eyeing them like a bird of prey. Jughead would normally tell her to piss off, but even with her pearls on, she looks like a person imitating herself. She’s still in yesterday's clothes. Jughead belatedly realizes these are the only clothes she owns now. 

Jughead leaves before Mr. and Mrs. Cooper return home, but Betty texts him that night before bed that Alice is letting Veronica stay with them for the foreseeable future. 

The first few weeks after Hermione and Hiram leave are rough. Not between Jughead and Betty, although they never get as much alone time as they want, but between everyone else. 

Veronica cries at school. Archie stops patrolling. Jughead is furious about Archie’s behavior. Betty is exhausted from having to share her house with one more person and their thoughts. She and Jughead are constantly overworked, having to take care of both the North and South side.

Two weeks in, Betty tells Jughead that Veronica is thinking about running away and finding her parents.

Through the loose, tenuous network of heroes, Alice has discovered that they’ve relocated to Seaside, California, a town where they can blend in with their wealth instead of stand out. 

The only hero in Seaside is young and mostly untrained. Alice and FP are both skeptical about the situation, but other heroes in California seem sure he can handle himself, either that or they are simply too apathetic to intervene.

Veronica gets a message from Hermione on Thanksgiving. It’s sent from a burner phone. Hermione is offering forgiveness to Veronica. She says if Veronica apologizes for her betrayal, she and Hiram will allow Veronica back into the fold. She even mentions a new Gucci purse she purchased on Veronica’s behalf. 

It’s good that Hermione reached out like that, because it pisses Veronica off in every way. Veronica goes from miserable to outraged. She can’t even say her parents’ names without spitting them like curse words.

All thoughts of trying to find them are gone. She doesn’t talk to Jughead or Archie about this, but Jughead overhears her telling Betty, ““They want me to beg for their forgiveness, when they’re the drug dealers and the murderers! Ha! They’re the criminals and I’m suppose to act like I did something wrong?” 

In a way that one text message is like a gift, because after that things turn around. Just before Christmas, Veronica convinces Archie to train her and take her on patrols. They start dating again. 

By the time Jughead crosses the stage at graduation his whole life has changed, in ways he could not have possibly imagined at the start of his senior year. 

He now considers Archie and Veronica his friends. He actually gets to drink milkshakes, go bowling, and watch movies. They also train together, all four of them now. Sweet Pea and Fangs joining occasionally, gruff but willing to teach. 

Betty learns how to fight as well. She packs less of a punch than the rest of them, but her precision is astounding. 

With the Lodges gone and the Blossoms laying low, Riverdale has never been so safe. Betty and Jughead now have time to date, separate from patrols. They bake brownie, go out to café’s, and make out at the drive in. 

They even take the train to the city one day to visit a college neither of them will ever attend. Instead they admire the strangeness of it. It feels like walking on to the set of a movie, students sprawled on the quad reading and talking. 

Their life is still rooted in Riverdale, it will always be rooted there. But before it felt like a trap they could never escape, now it’s their home. 

FP is moving on. His truck is already packed and as soon as graduation is over he’s leaving town. Jughead’s done so well in the last three months, that Riverdale’s his town now, but more importantly the trailer is his too, and Betty’s of course.

During graduation Alice found out that little detail, and now while she’s taking photos her expression is split between pride and anger. One minute there’s a smile, the next a scowl. 

Jughead doesn’t care. His arm is wrapped around Betty and he feels nothing but happiness, the world for once, exceeding his expectations. 

So what if a newcomer to town threw him into a cement truck last night (or rather earlier this morning), he has Betty by his side, and in any case he’s experienced worse. 

Once Alice becomes busy comparing notes with another mother, Betty turns and kisses him deeply, in a way that promises so much more. 

He knows now, even though in this moment he cannot read her mind, that her whole heart belongs to him, and she knows, even when he’s shouting the angriest words that he can think of, that he is hers, in every way, and always will be.

It’s ok that their lives aren’t glamorous, that Betty isn’t getting the ivy league college education she deserves, but instead a job at the mayor’s office and that Jughead’s probably going to have to wear the same shitty leather jacket for the rest of his life, because they have each other.

And now, in the time that school used to eat up, Jughead can write. He’s already started to put his thoughts on paper, and Betty’s assured him that they look just as beautiful and well-ordered on the page, as they do in his thoughts.

Jughead focuses again on the crowd around them, and sees the guidance counselor, Miss Mack talking to Betty a few yards away. 

He walks towards them just as Miss Mack says, “You deserve so much more than the Southside.”

Jughead’s prepared to speak up for Betty when she calmly says, “And you deserve to know about the world we actually live in, but I’m not going to tell you.” 

Betty turns away from Miss Mack and takes Jughead’s hand. She knows he’s there, she knows every angry/proud/childish thought in his head, and still she chooses him. 

Jughead understands how they must look from the outside to someone like Miss Mack. The straight A middle class princess and the D- child of the local gang leader, but he’s ok with that. Looks can be deceiving. But maybe Miss Mack knows that better than he initially thought, because as they walk away she says, “Take care of each other”. 

It turns out that they spend the rest of their lives doing just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for joining me on this journey! I love feedback and notes on what you like (or even what you didn't). 
> 
> Also I want you to know that even if you are reading this ages after I wrote it, I still love and appreciate comments.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I am really grateful for feedback!


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